Paper skin
Back in 2000, I was in grad school. There I met a woman who was really into papermaking. She introduced me to flax fiber pulp, especially the wonders of it when beaten for many hours. This makes a pulp that can hold a lot of pigment, resulting in bright, saturated color. It’s high-shrinkage, so as it dries it pulls itself taut around a solid form. And it’s translucent, which allows the color and tone of whatever is beneath to partially show through.
Image of papers
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I don’t use traditional methods of papermaking. Instead, I use an air compressor to spray the pigmented pulp onto screens, allowing for sheets that are roughly 4 x 4 feet. With this approach, I build a sheet from one side to the other with many layers of numerous colors.
Because it’s sprayed, the colors can form a gradient. A sheet might be in the green range, but gradually shift from yellow-green to blue-green across a single sheet. This provides a wonderful array of color options, so as I’m applying the evolving sequences of banded colors, I can avoid repeating a color by using one that’s similar. This play of similarity and difference allows me to work with pattern, but in a more freeform way.
Once or twice a year I spend a couple of weeks in which I shift the studio to papermaking mode and simply make sheets. I work my way around the color wheel, making the gradients from color to color. And I make the ones I call cloud, which are white with speckles of various colors, so the play of similarity and difference is available there, too.
With the Spiritus Naturalis series, the paper has evolved to include both white and black spots in every color combination. This allows for even highly contrasting colors to be next to one another and still flow together nicely.
I use a clear, non-toxic, water-based medium to adhere the paper to the gesso base coat. The fiber floats on the surface, giving it vibrant depth.
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